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The political directors of the contact group on Libya met in Doha yesterday evening.
It was chaired by HE the Minister of State for International Co-operation, Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah.
The meeting attended by representatives of the US, France, Italy, the UK, Turkey, Qatar, the UAE, Jordan and Germany, in addition to the National Transitional Council (NTC) in Libya discussed raising $2.5bn for the NTC, before the end of the holy month of Ramadan to help it pay salaries of public sector employees for the past six months and meet the emergency humanitarian needs of the Libyan people.
The meeting also discussed the issue of the Libyan assets frozen by other countries (according to UN sanctions) before the popular uprising in Libya, and means of unlocking them, in order to meet the requirements of the transitional period.
Opening the meeting, al-Attiyah said that the outcome of the previous meetings of the group were positive and would help fulfil the Libyan people’s desire to live in a state that respects freedom and the rule of law.
Al-Attiyah said that the NTC was in need of substantive support in order to be able to run the country and secure the basics needed for the respect of law and freedom and to fulfil international obligations.
This, he said, would need providing immediate access to the frozen Libyan assets in order to meet the basic needs of the Libyan people.
Meeting those requirements would help realise peace and security in Libya, al-Attiyah said while underlining the urgent need for paying the salaries of public sector employees estimated at $2.5bn.
The funds must be raised before Eid al-Fitr, he said, so it would have a positive impact for the Libyan people who for long, have suffered from a shortage of assistance.
“All of us are required to guarantee the transparency of such action, for which the contact group is responsible. It would be convenient that the group ask the UN Security Council to unlock all the frozen Libyan assets so that they could be rechannelled to providing the required resources,” he said.
Al-Attiyah recalled the Arab foreign ministers’ appeal in Doha yesterday, for lifting the sanctions and unlocking the assets immediately, as the Libyan people are in dire need of salaries and humanitarian assistance , as per the UN Security Council No 1970 of 2011.
The opening session was later turned into a closed meeting.